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February 27, 2013

I received an email yesterday that VersionOne’s State
of Agile Development Survey for 2012 was ready and I immediately grabbed my
copy. It’s always interesting to see how agile development is progressing and
where the challenges are.

On the plus side, this survey indicates that agile continues
to have legs, with future plans to implement agile increasing from 59% last
year to 83% this year, along with an increase of organizations with 5+ agile
teams (48% this year compared to 33% last year).

Top 3 Reasons for Adopting Agile

Accelerate time to market

Manage changing priorities

Better align IT/Business

VersionOne states that most responses centered on better
customer focus and increased productivity.

Top 3 Benefits Obtained from Implementing Agile

Ability to manage changing
priorities

Productivity

Project visibility (this
category saw the greatest increase in benefit, from 77% in 2011 to 84% in
2012)

70% of the respondents
indicated that agile projects have a faster completion
time.

Top 3 Barriers to Further Agile Adoption

Ability to change
organizational culture

General resistance to
change

Trying to fit elements
into a non-agile framework

Organizational culture has been cited as a barrier in successive
years, and is something that I covered in multiple posts in October and
November of last year, summarizing my thoughts in A Cultural Recipe for Agile Organizations,

Top 3 Concerns about Adopting Agile

Lack of up-front planning

Loss of management control

Management opposition

I wonder if management opposition would decrease if there
was a better understanding of the planning and empirical controls present in
agile development. It seems that we have a great deal of executive management
education to do.

Leading Causes of Failed Agile Projects

Company philosophy or
culture at odds with core agile values

External pressure to follow
traditional waterfall processes

A broader organizational
or communications problem

Actually, none failed
was at the top of the list, but I listed the top three reasons for actual
failures. Once again, it appears culture and traditional ways of doing things
have a significant impact. My takeway is that there is a stronger need to
increase awareness about what agile is and how obtaining the benefits of going agile
requires actual change in mindsets and approaches to work.

VersionOne added something that I really liked, quoting
answers to the question, “If you could say one thing to your company president
about agile, what would you say?” A couple of answers:

“Agile comes with a cultural change, or don’t do it at all.”

“Managers should be willing to listen and learn about agile.
They should not look at it as an uncontrolled process.”

Read more in the full survey
from VersionOne. And many thanks to VersionOne for continuing to take the time
and effort each year to do this!

3
comments

Thanks Dave for the summary. It puts things in perspective. Do you know of surveys/results on Agile trends with location/demographics in mind. Specifically I am referring to Agile trends and growth in US/Western Europe vs Asia.

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Welcome!

I'm currently an independent agile coach, residing in Portland, Maine. My work experience includes being a developer, a development manager, product manager/chief product owner, and agile coach. This blog is about channeling my passion for business, software development and writing – with an emphasis on agile leadership. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent the views of my current or former employers.